@lisantica I can be at the right place, at the right time once in a while. I just stol..er...picked up a custom pair of custom made Riedell womens roller skates for almost nothing.
@bikamper, that's the key getting out to find the deals. I haven't been getting out as much, so I have been relying on online sites and eBay for purchases.
It's out for delivery! Can't wait. I'll take photos to share and fire it up too! I'm eager to see the bottom of the burner.
It's here and I like it, but I am worried that there is a lot of rust inside the burner. Is there something I should do? I fired it up because I wanted to see if it works and it does. Bottom of burner: Inside burner: Flame (although hard to see):
As some of your trained eyes would notice, I had it put together wrong. I found that out quickly when I tried to put on the pan to boil water. I have it right now. I used a paper towel inside the burner and a lot of the surface rust wiped off. It burns better now.
The big burner that came with mine was well rusted, and the holes were about half plugged. I used a toothpick to clean the crap out Mine boils water likety split. You put water one for macncheese, or coffee, putter around doing something else for a minute and look back and it's goin like made. never timed it.
I would try to do something to kill the rust inside the burner, as it will eventually rust through. My treatment of choice is a product called “OsPho”, which uses phosphoric acid to convert the rust (iron oxide) into an iron phosphate complex. It also provides a coating on the metal. You just brush it on with a small paintbrush, and let it do its thing. I wouldn’t use it on non-ferrous metals without testing it first. ….Arch
Did a quick clean with some Bar Keeper's Friend scrub. I didn't want to get it too clean, just get some of the gunk off.
That is the original burner in case you still had any doubt. I used mine over 3 years ago and had just put it away after use (road hard and put away wet, : ( ). I just opened lid and mine is now rusty inside as well. Not as bad but the same situ is happening. Any rust treatment will only treat the side we can get to, not the back side. I'll give it a quick clean with copper scrubber. One option is place a moisture absorber inside it before closing the lid. In hindsight I could have let it thoroughly dry-out before stowing it away, i did not (in that way it's the same as tents and some other camping gear, make sure it's dry before storing it for year(s)). edit: re Optimus-77A-provided burner [on left] is more rare and different than the more common Swedish military issued ones [on right]. Same size, swappable. That said the 77A top / flame pattern is wider unmarked vs, this military issue example happens to be stamped w/3 crowns and Trangia.
@OMC, I'm going to be very cautious for now on when storing burners. I am happy to report that I took a dry toothbrush to the inside walls and it looks tremendously better in there. I'll take a an updated photo.
@OMC, thank you for the photos you added. Here is a photo I took of my burner after a simple wipe with paper towel and a dry toothbrush scrub.
That does look quite a bit better. That looks very much like brass. If so, not sure where the rust is coming from. Perhaps only the inner ring is steel? If you’re thinking of using Ospho, check with a magnet to see which parts are steel, and only treat those parts, using an artist-type brush. I’m not sure what Ospho will do to brass. ….Arch
@ArchMc, thank you for the Ospho tips, I'm going to try a little more brush cleaning first before going that route since the first try gave some impressive results, but it's certainly good to know about that product.
Unfortumetly yes, the inner ring is steel. We may never know "why?", why would they/did they go with steel? Consequence we deal with (from that production decision): this burner requires different consideration/care vs the same size military-issued types (inner ring is brass).
I took some sand paper and worked on the sides. I'm happy with how it is turning out. I think if I coat the inside with Ospho as mentioned, I can at least stop the one side from deteriorating. Here is a before and after:
